As the amount of leisure time increases, more and more people are turning to water sports as a desirable form of recreational activity. The attraction of water skiing, fishing and general boating has stimulated the market for small boats to all-time highs. However, the financial and logistical problems of storing and maintaining a boat are sometimes too great for the average family. If the boat is adapted to be docked in the water, then the cost for dock space, especially in the more congested areas, is increasingly prohibitive. On the other hand, transporting the boat over land from its storage space to the water by means of a trailer necessitates, of course, the purchase of a trailer. It also involves the problems inherent in detaching the boat from the trailer prior to lowering it into the water as well as the problems in remounting it onto the trailer.
Many people own beachfront property in which dock space is not readily available. In order to take advantage of the nearby water, the owners of beachfront properties must store boats, such as catamarans and trimarans, in their garages. It is a complicated procedure to drag the boat over the beach so as to get it into the water. Many times, the complexities of bringing the boat to the water discourage people from enjoying the water activities.
In the past, various U.S. patents have issued related to the need for an easily transportable boat. S. P. Bouchard U.S. Pat. No. 2,850,747, issued on Sep. 9, 1958, provides an amphibious catamaran in which the floats are arranged so as to move, hydraulically or manually, from a position outwardly of the body to a position in which the floats are mounted beneath the body. B. C. Stockmann U.S. Pat. No. 3,114,157, issued on Dec. 17, 1963, shows a raft having retractable wheels fastened thereto so as to enable the raft to be trailed behind a vehicle. N. J. Carroll, Jr. U.S. Pat. No. 3,599,256, issued on Aug. 17, 1971, shows a pair of corresponding running gear assemblies which are detachably mounted in a boat so as to enable the boat to be trailed by a draft vehicle. The running gear assemblies are readily retractable to positions above the water line. J. F. Taylor U.S. Pat. No. 3,787,910, issued on Jan. 29, 1974, discloses an amphibious vehicle in which a central section has expandable wing sections disposed on each side. Each of the wing sections has a retractable wheel assembly incorporated therein. A retractable towbar is provided on the front of the body which enables the towhitch to be moved inwardly relative to the body when the amphibious vehicle is used as a watercraft.
W. J. Brady U.S. Pat. No. 3,797,056, issued on Mar. 19, 1974, describes an amphibious vehicle having a body and a pontoon/wheel assembly on each side pivotally connected to the body for angular movement about an axis parallel to the length of the body between a land traveling position in which the wheels are engagable with the ground and the pontoons are in a laterally inner position and a water travelling position in which the pontoons are in a laterally outward position. U.S. Pat. No. 3,877,094, issued on Apr. 15, 1975, provides a combination trailer and pontoon boat in which the pontoons are hinged to the frame at the junctures between the notches and the flat bottom portions of the frame in a manner so as to fold beneath the flat bottom pontoons of the frame. I. Lindsay U.S. Pat. No. 3,937,166, issued on Feb. 10, 1976, illustrates a multi-hulled boat having a main float and retractable floats normally arranged in spaced apart side-by-side relationship.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a relatively light beach-launching trimaran.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an amphibious vehicle which can be moved between the various positions by human muscle power and leverage.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an amphibious vehicle which can be quickly assembled between its water-going and road-going positions.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an amphibious vehicle which is relatively inexpensive, easy to manufacture, and easy to use.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a reading of the attached specification and appended claims.